A growing percentage of consumers and business persons rely on an increasing number and type of communication services and technologies on a regular basis. For instance, it is not uncommon for a consumer to subscribe to a wireless telephone service, a land-line telephone service, and a broadband Internet access service. With multiple communication service subscriptions come multiple messaging stores (e.g., voicemail, facsimiles (i.e., faxes), electronic mail (i.e., e-mail), etc.) to monitor, read and/or reply to.
Service providers have recognized that providing a method that allows a subscriber to access their multiple and potentially disparate message stores from a central location using a common set of access tools is appealing to subscribers. For example, in the Unified CommunicationsSM service offered by SBC Communications® voice messages, faxes and e-mails are integrated into a common mailbox, allowing subscribers to retrieve, forward and reply to messages via telephone, or online. The integrated message mailbox is accessible anywhere Internet access is available or via any wireless, land-line, and/or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone.